Copyright 1995, Eva Thury and Alexander Friedlander, based on Thury, E. and Friedlander, A., "A Study of Reader Response Journals: Students' Interaction with Literary Texts" in Empirical Approaches to Literature and Aesthetics, ed. Mary Sue MacNealy and Art Graesser (Ablex 1995).
1. metacomments about keeping a journal
1. general
2. positive
3. negative
2. direct comments about reading
1. good (e. g., interesting)
Ex. 1 Now that the book gets to the stories of Odysseus' travels, it is getting interesting
2. bad (e. g., wordiness):
Ex. 1. complaint about things that don't contribute to the storyline
Ex. 2. I think Homer is
starting to drag out this story too much. Odysseus and his father sit and talk
for hours, and homer insists on reporting every detail. Come on fellas, lets
get on with it already. I didn't sit here and read 350 pages of this book just
so I can read a chapter about where you two dilly dally around Ithaca and do
practically nothing. I want to see the blood of the suitors run the streets of
Ithaca red. I can't stand to wait anymore.
3. boring:
Ex. 1. Gulliver crazy in last book
Ex. 2. I began to get bored with Homer's exaggerated stories about Odysseus' travels.
4. expectations:
Ex. 1. I thought the story would end with Odysseus ruling his country like the norm once again, or Telemakos being happily married off, etc. I just think the story ended too abrubtly.
Ex. 2. I do not know how to take this story whether this is Swift fantasy, just a bunch of lies or the plain truth!
Ex. 3. I thought that
Madonna in the story about the angel Gabriel was totally unbelievable.
5. general metacomments about reading
3. comments about style
1. themes
1. general
Ex. 1. ducks in Catcher
2. value judgements
2. style
1. general
Ex. 1. modularity of Homer
Ex. 2. satire of Swift
2. value judgements
Ex. 1. modularity is boring
3. literary devices
1. general
Ex. 1. Penelope is compared to Aphrodite by homer
2. value judgements
4. literary conventions - genre conventions
1. attempt to assign a genre
2. considering the kind of hero found in the story
4. comments about writing and author's aims
1. general
Ex. 1. isn't it convenient that at just the point when gulliver must leave, a boat appears? It must be fun being a writer and being able to pull things like that out of thin air. they don't realls say much in this chapter.
Ex. 2. I hate when authors throw in quotes in Latin
Ex. 3. I'm trying to figure out why Homer bothers showing the suitors condemned souls down in hell. It doesn't really seem to show any purpose. OPPS! Strike that last sentence! It probably has to do with how homer compared the homecoming of Agamemnon and odysseus. However, the outcome was better for Odysseus. But maybe Agamemnon can rest peacefully now that he knows that Odysseus has made it home safely and has avenged himself.
Ex. 4. Throughout the whole book we see this bathroom humor, and finally after reaching the end of the book, I can not see any purpose to it at all, except to futher disgust the readers. I would have thought there would have been some sort of purpose to it, especially since the bathroom humor was used so frequently throughout the book. Unless it was used to make Gulliver look even more stupid and Gullible that he really was?
Ex. 5. That's it. What happened to the ending of the story. They just left you hanging. The author did not tell you what finally put Holden over the edge, anything in detail about jane and what happed with her and holden, nothing about Holden's confrontation with his parents, what he is doing to get help, what he is doing to improve his life, How far he has come. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I got ripped off. I don't believe I just read two hundred pages to be let down like that.
Ex. 6. I am not sure this is correct, but I think that Boccaccio was trying to say that, although men control what women are supposed to do, women are not weak. I also think he was trying to prove that just because you are not born from a noble family, doesn't mean that you are not as good or even better than those who are from noble families.
Ex. 7. Since the island is supposed to represent the king's court, I think Swift is trying to say that the king is not very powerful; for he is not aware of what is actually going on his kingdom, unless someone else tells him about it.
2. author's character: hypotheses
5. comments about culture
1. general statement of a cultural event
2. evaluation
Ex. 1. It's hard to believe that people were expected to put strangers up without question
3. connections c/c of the culture in the work to modern culture & customs (e.g. guest-host relationship)
4. connections c/c of the values in the work to modern values and attitudes
6. comments about characters
1. general statement about a character
2. motivation: trying to understand the characters
Ex. 1. I think the reason that Odysseus tells Penelope the lie about him knowing Odysseus, is to give her hope that Odysseus is still alive, and to give her enough strength to get her through the rough time until she can find out the truth. So in this case, his lying served as more than the purpose of just hiding his identity.
3. evaluating the characters: are their actions good or bad? likable or unlikable?
Ex. 1. I must admit, I liked
the way that Cepparello tricked the monk into thinking that he was really a
good person.
I had to stop and laugh a
couple of times when the lies were so outrageous, that it was hard to believe
that anyone would believe it.
It seemed to me that
Boccicco portrayed the monk to be a little bit dummer and gullible that I think
that most would have been.
Especially back then, when the monks were super strict about religion.
4. connections c/c of the characters to self, own world (personal level)
7. summarize plot
1. straight summary
2. questions about what is going on in the plot
8. derive own moral judgements
1. recommendations of book
2. morals derived: general
3. personal morals derived
9. connections
1. to books
Ex. 1. Well, I must admit, this chapter is more than I expected from Boccicco. It sounds like one of those harliquin romances you buy in the acme for a dollar fourty nine, with the woman jumping from bed to bed.
Ex. 2. One thing I noticed
about this particular chapter was its similarity with many of the ideas
presented in the Odessey. Similarity
#1, they are on a voyage. During the voyage, A storm sinks the ship, and kills
most of the crew. Another would be how
the longer Alatiel rejected the love of Pericone, the more he desired her. This would compare to penelope and the suitors. Probably the biggest similarity would be all the murdering
over a woman.
And then eventually the war that broke out over Alatiel; It sounds just like helen of Troy.
Ex. 3. Well if you ask me, this seems as if it is going to be another one of those strange books. (Catcher like GT)
2. to movies
Ex. 1. Many of the ideas in
the book remind me of the movie "Jason and the Argonauts" I wonder if that's where they got some of their ideas?
There was also another movie
I can remember seeing a cyclops being blinded they same way that Odysseus
Blinded Polyphemos.
i think that it was one of the Simbad movies, unless the Odyssey was made into a movie. If not, i Think a movie about the odyssey is long overdue. At least a movie for TV or something.
3. to TV
10. internalizations of points made in class:
Ex. 1. the stories O tells show what kind of hero he is
Ex. 2. So in this case, his lying served as more than the purpose of just hiding his identity.